How to Organize Garage Cabinets Effectively

Figuring out how to organize the garage cabinets effectively will help keep your storage area nice and tidy.

Your poor garage. Unless you are part of a very small minority of homeowners, it doesn’t get anywhere near the amount of TLC the rest of your home receives. And that’s just not right. You and your family probably spend a lot of time in the garage. The garage is an activity space, and even if yours is not one of those families, everyone probably still passes through it every day. One thing you can do to make your garage a nicer space is to figure out how to organize garage cabinets. Closet America has some suggestions and steps to organize any garage.

6 Tips on How to Organize Your Garage Cabinets

The garage holds an amazing range of important things, from sports gear and gardening tools to holiday and seasonal clothing and decorations. Maybe some of those things are simply storage that was pushed out of the house. Not only do items come and go in both directions, but they also range in size from the minuscule—screws, nails, tennis balls—to as big as a car. It takes some planning to bring order to such a wide assortment of things, and organizing your cabinets is an important part of that planning. Besides their organizational benefits, garage cabinets are a great place to store items you want to protect from dust (and maybe want to keep out of sight, too).

1. Look at the big picture when organizing your garage cabinets. Think about the things that can and cannot live together. Do you have a Washington Capitals fan in the house? If they play too, you may want the hoe and shovel to live close to their hockey sticks because their shapes make it easy to store them together. Do the hockey pucks need to be close to the sticks? They would keep nicely in a drawer. These are the burning issues of garage organization, and they extend to cabinets. Jugs of fluids for car maintenance, cleaning, and lawn care, for example, won’t attract undesirable attention from young children if they are kept up and away in a cabinet and off the floor. Dog and cat food is safer behind a door as well.

2. Adjustable shelves are a must. There are things that may be like-sized you can store together in a cabinet as well, to the extent that you want them to—your Nationals fan’s baseball mitt may or may not belong next to the ski goggles. Either way, the shelves around them should adjust to optimize the use of space.

3. Consider all of your storage options. Not everything needs to be in a cabinet. Tennis balls are not very conveniently kept in one. Instead, a basket of them could be hung on a slatwall, along with a variety of magnetic strips, holders, and hooks. Shelves can likewise be mounted on the wall for large items and the things you want easy access to so you can grab them in a hurry as you walk (or run) by.

4. Consider all of your cabinet choices. Cabinets go very nicely under countertops, or they can stretch from floor to ceiling. Figure out how much space you need, where you want it, and what you want to put in it. You might want the holiday décor to spend the off-season on the top shelves, or in a cabinet off in the far corner in a cabinet of its own. Most garages have ample storage space when they are fitted with the right organization systems. You don’t have to crowd anything—in fact, you may want to leave some room for expansion in your garage cabinet plans, just in case.

5. Lockers can create order too. Doorless lockers can be used to organize things much the same as cabinets do. You can take a cue from the mudroom and add some next to the door to create a family space where everyone can hang their jackets and keep their shoes. Chrome baskets can be incorporated into the locker unit for small sports equipment. If you insist on putting tennis balls in a cabinet, they work all right in a basket there too, as do dog toys.

6. Do not DIY. Creating an organization system for a complex space like a garage is a major challenge. If you have the skills to carry out a DIY garage renovation, you can go get the supplies from the home store and build the system that you want. But it will be a huge amount of exacting (not to mention exhausting) work. And if you buy ready-made components, you risk purchasing lower-quality items that may not hold up—or, indeed, may not fit your garage space or needs well at all. In most cases, custom garage cabinet installation is a job best left to the professionals.

Quality is Key to Effective Garage Organization

Garage organization planning is the secret to happiness in many things in life. It’s a good idea to discuss your plans for how to organize garage cabinets (and the rest of the garage) with an expert. Closet America offers a free design consultation with one of our experts in your home, so you can go over those plans and see them in an interactive 3D model using CAD technology.

Along with a great design, a key factor in successful home organization is quality. Your garage organization system is likely to receive some high-impact handling, and it has to stand up to it for years. Your garage storage system should be constructed from high-quality materials, such as:

• Sturdy ¾-inch thermo-fused laminate shelving

• Floor-standing units with built-in levelers

• Lock-in metal tabs to hold shelves in place

The other thing that can help guarantee a top-quality job is a transferrable lifetime warranty. After all, if the manufacturers themselves aren’t confident in the quality of their products, why should you be?

Contact Closet America today to talk to a design expert and start getting organized in your garage with a beautiful, high-quality custom storage system.